The horn came up the north road at first light, three long notes that rolled over the glasshouses.
I was stacking seed crates by the gate, and every wolf in Greywater stopped moving at once.
Rona: Those are royal banners. That is the king's own seal on the cloth.
Darragh came out pulling on his Alpha's coat, and his eyes went over my head like I was a fence post.
Darragh: Kitchen. Now.
Darragh: Say one word in front of him and I will have you chained in the cellar until spring.
The Alpha King rode in on a black horse with frost in its mane.
Cassius Arden was tall and lean, and he sat the saddle like he had been born on it.
His coat was black and plain, and the royal seal at his collar was the only gold on him.
Darragh bowed low and pushed Ilona forward in her silk.
Darragh: My king. Welcome to Greywater. This is my Luna, Ilona.
Cassius: I am not here for your Luna. I am here for Fiona of Cairn.
The whole yard turned to look at me, and Darragh's face went the color of old tallow.
Darragh: There is no Cairn here. Only my wife.
Darragh: She is a dry wife I keep out of pity, and her mother's name died with her mother.
Cassius: She wrote to my court in her own hand and sealed it.
Cassius: A seal is not a rumor, Alpha. It is a claim, and a claim has to be answered.
He looked past Darragh and found me standing in my dirt.
He did not look away from the apron.
Cassius: Come here, Fiona. Stand where I can see you.
I crossed the yard with my boots leaving marks in the frost.
Ilona: The help speaks now. She smells of the vault and turnips.
Ilona: Ask her about grain, my king. Not law.
My face went hot, and I did not drop my eyes.
Cassius: I did not ride this far to hear other people talk over her.
Cassius: Speak, Fiona. I am listening.
I had rehearsed it a hundred times in the dark of the vault, and now the words came out plain.
Fiona: I ask the crown for a public dissolution of an unfinished bond, before the Sun Court.
Fiona: Not in a kitchen. On the record.
Darragh: Damn you. A bond is pack business.
Darragh: You are mine until I say otherwise, and no king changes that.
Darragh: Say one more word and the cellar will be the last of you.
Cassius did not raise his voice. That was worse.
Cassius: Pack law is not the last law, Alpha. The crown sits above the fence line.
Cassius: Ask your steward how many debts the crown can collect from this hall.
Cassius: Whose name is on the seed contracts of Greywater? Speak plainly.
Rurik: Cairn, my king. Filed in her own hand. Every one.
I let out a breath I had been holding since First Thaw.
The pack had gone so quiet I could hear the frost cracking under my boots.
Cassius: Then she has standing in this yard with or without your leave.
Cassius: She is not a chair to be moved, Alpha. She is a person who asked me for something.
He turned back to me, and something in his face eased like a door opening on a warm room.
Cassius: Tell me what you want from me, Fiona.
Cassius: Not what your husband wants you to say.
My hands were cold and steady. I was so tired of begging.
Fiona: I want to be heard, and then I want to leave this pack on my own terms.
Fiona: That is all I have ever asked.
Cassius looked at me for one long moment, and I felt it down my spine like heat off a stove.
Cassius: Then you will be heard in open court, with every page read aloud.
Cassius: Send me every page you have. I will read them myself.
Darragh opened his mouth, and Cassius lifted one hand, and the Alpha of Greywater closed it again.
For three years Darragh had been the highest power in my world.
He was not even the highest power in his own yard anymore.